by Angela Foxxe
“If we get split up for any reason, I want you to get to the lodge. I’ll find a way to meet you there in a couple of days, okay?”
“Sure, but we're not going to get split up.”
“No,” he reassured her, “not if I can help it.”
They walked hand in hand to the opposite side, stopping occasionally to gaze at a piece of art, or comment on how a certain piece of furniture would look in the loft. When they came to racks of clothing Reign squealed; she hadn't changed her clothes since the day before.
“Let me try on a few pieces, okay?”
Richard nodded, keeping one eye on the crowd and one on his love.
Reign dived into the mountain of clothing. There were some good brands to be found, and living her whole life in a city that had all the same stores that New York had, but for half the price, she knew what to look for. She found a wonderfully cut tank top that showed off her belly button, along with a pair of plaid pants that looked like they were painted on.
She had to remove her panties to get them to look right, but she didn’t think Richard would mind. She followed it up with a pair of four-inch heels and a scarf. She checked herself in the mirror of the impromptu changing room; she looked good enough to eat with a spoon.
She certainly hoped Richard thought so. They needed to blend in, and her shopping for clothes did that. She put on a little show for Richard, it made her feel good to take some of the stress off of his mind, and it made her feel good too. He smiled as she pranced out of the dressing room every few minutes, a different outfit on each time. She finally settled on a wrap top that fell short about an inch from her low cut jeans, and a pair of red flats.
“Now, you,” she urged.
“What? No, I’m fine,” he said.
Reign looked him up and down. He had a body that most men could get if they were willing to spend eight hours a day in the gym, but his fashion sense was circa nineteen-fifty.
“Richard, I love you, but a white t-shirt and jeans isn’t fashion, its giving up. Come on, let me show you some stuff to wear,” Reign said with a smile, pulling him into the racks of clothes.
Fashion wise, Richard's biggest problem was that he was six four with a massive torso and thick legs. Clothes just were not made for his body type. She ended up finding him a good pair of slacks, though, and a nice long sleeve turtleneck that cut to his waist, along with a pair of black boots with a red trim. He looked quite nice. She finished him off with a white shirt, left unbuttoned.
She made one last adjustment, took a step back and smiled.
“Perfect. Okay, let’s go.”
They made their way out of the market, up the road to the large plaza city center that dominated downtown Bellevue.
“What’s the plan?” she asked.
“The bus station isn’t too far away, we grab the bus back to the city and hide out till the passports are ready.”
“What’s plan B, since I don’t think that one’s gonna work,” she said with a nod toward two uniformed officers who were walking their way.
“Shit, how did they find us?”
Reign didn’t know; it seemed that wherever they went, not long after they were discovered, but Richard was so sure they hadn’t been followed. Moreover, why hadn’t they gone after the car? The cops had the same aura as the others, a gray with black and other dark bits. She looked to Richard, his aura was white, with pink and red, the other humans were just red with a tint of pink. She looked down to herself, pure white, like an angel.
“Oh shit, Richard, they're following me, I stand out like a beacon in the Fade.”
She hugged close to him, and fear seeped up her spine. If someone could see her in the Fade, then there were others who could do what she does, and that sent her heart racing and her mind reeling.
How do you hide from someone like that?
* * *
Devado strode through the crowd easily pacing her unknowing prey. She was not a vampire, though she did serve one, so she could be out in the light where they feared to tread. She’d found, long ago, a way to trade her power for protection. Magi were rare and they had many enemies, and few friends.
The entire supernatural world used the Fade to exist, so the idea that a human, with no ties to any community, could bend it to their will, well, that made them nervous, and they tended to kill things that made them nervous. When Devado was young, she discovered her powers and the world of the supernatural in the same night. She made a choice, and lived with it ever since.
The young girl seemed to have made that same choice. But where Devado served the mistress of the city, this young Hindi girl had chosen the wolves. She should have stayed in the forest. Her extravagant use of the power is what drew Devado to her, if they could capture her and train her, perhaps Lady Dulci would let Devado go, or would have enough power to allow her her own life.
Either way, Devado needed this girl with the clan, and not with her beefcake.
It was simple to follow them, she seemed to know nothing of hiding her true nature; whatever power she may have, she had no training, and Devado had spent a lifetime training.
* * *
Reign sensed that something wasn’t right. There was a feeling of closeness; she felt a hand on her back, pushing her forward. She stopped. Her legs obeyed but then she fell forward a step, Richard had her arm, balancing her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked in a whisper.
Reign shrugged. “Something, I don’t know what. Stand in front of me,” she commanded. He did. She fell into an easy hug with him. The sun was bright but the cold spring air was still a little crisp; his body produced more than enough heat for the two of them. With him holding her up she could feel it more, a presence behind them, something, she didn’t know what, told her it was like her.
“Have you ever held two positive sides of a magnet together,” she asked looking up to him. He nodded.
“It’s like that, I’m being repelled from behind, I think… it’s hard to explain, but I think there is someone like me following us, watching us.” Richard was looking down at her, but she could see his eyes scanning the crowd. So far the two uniformed cops had held their distance, but they were probably waiting for a place to pull them aside privately.
“Find me something to look for,” he said. He leaned down to kiss her. She leaned up on her tip toes to meet him; she could have stopped at his lips and whispered, but she wanted to kiss him, to feel his lips on hers, his tongue in her mouth, and she did. They kissed for a long moment, she felt his hands relax and roam her back. Her scars from the whippings were still there, they still ached when she used her power, and they positively buzzed now.
That’s it, they sense the Fade.
“Whatever it is, it’s directly behind us, and close.”
Richard pulled up reluctantly from the kiss and brought her face to his chest for a tender hug. It also gave him an excuse to look backwards.
“I have her, blond, blue eyes, pale skin, black jacket, red scarf.” He paused to sniff the air. “I have her scent.” She could hear the smile in his voice, the smile of a predator.
“Here’s the plan; leave me, I’ll walk toward the ladies room over there, you circle around behind her and take her out. I’ll deal with the cops.”
She could see the reluctance on his face to leave her, to have her fend for herself, but she smiled with more confidence than she felt.
“It’ll be okay love, trust me.” And he did, she noted, with one last brush against her cheek he moved off in the direction of a nearby coffee stand.
Reign was alone, she watched him walk away with a heavy heart. She was not confident in her abilities at all, and while she didn’t doubt them, it was a different thing altogether to go from using them, to relying on them. With a deep breath, she set off for the ladies room. She just hoped that the two cops took the bait. She resisted the urge to look around, she knew she didn’t have the skill to do it and not be seen. As soon as she started moving, she felt the pressure on he
r back, but at a different angle now.
Good, she isn’t following.
The public restroom had a mirror fixed atop of the door for security, but Reign steadfastly ignored it, instead, she pretended to text on her phone all the way inside. It did make her miss her mom, they used to text constantly. Now she could not even remember the last time she spoke to her. Reign figured that they would wait a moment to make sure no one else was in there, so she used that moment to throw away her ice cream, empty her bladder and wash her hands.
While she was drying, they came in. They were big men, one black, the other Hispanic; both looked like they worked out a lot, made even bulkier by the gear they wore.
“Can I help you, officers?” she said, a forced smile on her face.
“Hands up miss, you’re under arrest,” the black one said, while his partner awkwardly made his way toward her. Their faces were not devoid of emotion, there was something sick on them, something wrong that made Reign’s skin crawl, and if she didn’t already know they were trouble, this would tell her. The Hispanic had one hand out toward her, the other held a zip tie.
Confident that she could use her powers regardless, she let them zip tie her hands behind her back. The Hispanic, whose name was Dias, forced her up against the wall, pressing his whole body into her as he tied her hands behind her back.
She heard the door lock.
“We were told to bring her in, Paul,” Dias said to his partner.
“Look at her man, she’s hot, and they didn’t say we couldn’t have a little fun first, it’s not like this bitch is going to complain when they are done with her.” She could feel Dias relax; he agreed.
“What do you say, honey, a little double dipping?”
He turned her around and slammed her back against the wall, pinning her legs apart with the sink. His partner was already unbuckling his gun belt. The fear that knotted itself in Reign’s stomach was not unfamiliar. It was the fear she felt since she was twelve years old. The fear that every boy she ever dated gave her. The fear she felt the night she met Richard, when Edward attacked her, but it was just fear. And she knew, knew she was safe, because these two didn’t know who they were fucking with.
“I would say yes, but your dicks are probably too small, you know, once you go wolf, you never go back,” she said with a smile.
The surprise on their faces was priceless, they were hunters after all, they were not used to being the hunted.
“Oh, boys, you just are not in your league.”
She focused her power. Dias screamed as he was holding her waist, the electricity jumped through him to the floor. Paul went for his gun. The electricity that poured out of Reign arched across the floor with sparks and latched onto his feet. He screamed and spasmed as it clenched every cell in his body.
She cut the power and both men fell to the ground. Little wafts of smoke curled up from their unconscious bodies. Her hands were free, she noted, the electricity melted the zip-cuffs.
She took their cell phones, radios, and guns and dumped them in the waste basket in the corner, they would probably assume she took them and not look for them. She took one more moment to look at them… their auras wavered, no longer just gray, there was a bit of pink on the edges.
She reached down to Paul and placed her hand on his head, she closed her eyes and could still see him, could see the tentacles in his aura, the hooks of evil there.
To her surprise, she reached in and brushed them aside, like brushing aside a fly in the air. The hooks fell, then came back, she brushed them again, this time harder. They vanished.
She opened her eyes and Paul was awake, barely. “Thank you,” he muttered before falling back unconscious. She moved to Dias to see if she could do the same thing, she couldn’t. There were no hooks anymore, like an infestation or parasite, all that he was, was the parasite.
The door to the bathroom crashed open. Reign jumped to the back wall, heart pounding in her chest. The blond woman Richard described was there, but so was Richard. He held her around the neck with one hand. His arms looked burned.
“Are you okay?” he growled, his eyes were thick with the gold of his wolf blood, and he could barely speak.
“Am I okay? What happened to you?”
“She likes fire,” he said pushing her into the bathroom and closing the now broken door with his foot.
“Who the hell are you?” Reign demanded.
The pretty blond remained silent, but Reign could feel the wave of…force? It pushed against her, both physically and mentally, she fought against it. To her surprise Richard took a step back.
“Why can’t we touch?” she asked, taking a different approach.
“You’re just a child playing with forces you cannot understand,” the woman replied. She had no accent, or at least she had a ‘Seattle’ accent that told Reign that she was at least a local.
“You mean the Fade?”
That got a reaction.
“So you know what it’s called, but do you know what it is?”
Reign seemed to have piqued her curiosity; many people had a subconscious desire to teach, to show their superior knowledge. Reign ran into it a lot as a violinist, everyone older wants to believe they are smarter than those younger.
“Not really, I visited it once, in a dream, it left these on me.” She pulled up her shirt to her breasts and turned sideways, the long scars puckered white against her dark skin. The woman nodded as much as she could with Richard’s massive hand around her throat.
“It’s the mark of the Fade, we all have it, one way or another,” she said.
Reign pulled her shirt down. “We?”
“Fade Touched is what the vampires call us, mage is what we call ourselves, I’m not sure what your dog calls us, though.” She grinned until Richard squeezed. “Down boy,’ she said through clenched teeth.
“Are they dead?” he asked.
“No, one of them is ‘cured’ though, I don’t know what vampires do to enthrall people, but it has these hooks on them, and I removed them, so he,” she pointed at the unconscious black man, “should be fine. The other one, though, well, there was nothing left to save,” Reign explained.
“What do we do with her?”
“You are asking me?”
“It was your plan,” Richard responded with a shrug.
“I don’t suppose I could convince you to leave me alone,” she asked of the other mage.
“If it were up to me, I wouldn’t be here, but it’s not, so no.”
“That's what I thought.” She looked to Richard. “Can you knock her out without killing her?”
He squeezed, the woman tried to cough, to struggle, her hands shot out wildly, clawing at Richard's massive fist and wrists, but it only took seconds and she was limp. He laid her down carefully, head resting on Paul's torso.
Richard asked Reign, “Is she how they are their finding us?”
“I think so, let’s get out of here.”
*
The bus ride back to the city took forever. The vehicle was so crowded that Reign was forced to sit on Richard’s lap, not that she minded. She cuddled up to him with her face in his neck. Somewhere along the I-90 bridge, she started kissing him, long warm kisses that pushed all thoughts of vampires, thralls, and the Fade out of her mind. Her face was flushed and her body tingled from the attention, she hoped that they could always be like this. Despite the stress of the day, a few minutes of kissing him and she was ready to have sex with him.
She slipped a hand under his shirt to feel his warm skin. It tingled under her hand. His hand found its way under her shirt, to run along her back. Her scars itched but did not hurt as he traced the delicate lines with his hand.
“God, I need you, and I mean right fucking now,” she said breathlessly into his ear. He grabbed her by the hand and led her to the door. The bus stopped and the two of them got off. The neighborhood was residential, nowhere near downtown.
Richard raised his nose in the air and sniffed. Reign
tried to focus on what he was doing, but the passion in her heart made everything dim and cloudy. Richard led her to a small house a half block from the street. He pushed the door open and pulled her through. The house was empty, no furniture, no paintings on the walls, nothing but bare carpet.
She lunged at him. She had to have him, to feel him, to be with him. Her soft lips found his and she moaned. His hands unbuttoned her pants, she pulled her shirt up and over her head exposing her hard nipples and large breasts. She couldn’t think, she was so overcome with desire.
“Fuck me, fuck me right now,” she pleaded. He spun her around, pinned her head to the wall so her torso was bent over, and in one swift motion freed his large dick from his pants and placed it at the entrance to her pussy.